[Peace-discuss] US Aircraft and Elite Navy SEALs Defeat ThreeSomalis in a Lifeboat

[Randall Cotton]

The US military executed these teenagers who were reportedly out of
ammunition, roped to a warship, and ready to give up their hostage. One of
them had already surrendered.

A question that quickly came to my mind was:

Would the US military have done the same thing if they were white American
teenagers off the coast of the US?

I think the answer is no. I think if you asked people outside the US, most
of them would also think the answer is no.

So what does that say? It advertises worldwide that for the U.S., a black
African's life is worth significantly less than a white American's life,
and that in a situation like this, their life is worth so little that
execution is more like the first option rather than the last resort.

More motivation throughout the world for "terrorist" revenge against the
US, more recruitment for Al-Qaeda.

Nice job. Way to go on that.

R

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: "peace-discuss" <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:35 PM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] US Aircraft and Elite Navy SEALs Defeat
ThreeSomalis in a Lifeboat


: [Ron Szoke and I discussed this a bit in this week's AWARE on the Air.
The
: reason for the great interest of the US in Somalia can be gleaned from
looking
: at the map (or better a globe). Somalia -- like Serbia -- is on the
approaches
: to the cynosure of US foreign policy, the Middle East. Killing African
teenagers
: is the way CENTCOM works.  --CGE]
:
: US Aircraft and Elite Navy SEALs Defeat Three Somalis in a Lifeboat
: Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford
:
: The mounting hue and cry in the US press over the menace to civilization
posed
: by Somali "pirates" is yet another Big Lie, to justify the latest
chapter in
: America's imperial quest for African oil and other resources. US
missiles and
: drones in the air, and perhaps US boots on the ground are all but
inevitable,
: ordered to kill near-defenseless African civilians, by America's First
Black
: President.
:
: What a weekend for American foreign policy! The United States Navy,
backed up by
: warships from 20 other nations, knocked off three Somali guys crouching
with
: rifles in a lifeboat tied by a rope to a U.S. destroyer. To hear the
U.S.
: corporate media tell it, the Americans had won a huge victory over the
forces of
: evil. The sole surviving Somali was in custody – a 16-year-old who
essentially
: gave himself up, earlier, after being hurt in a scuffle with the
American cargo
: ship captain who is now celebrated as a hero of the seven seas and
defender of
: United States national honor.
:
: There is something obscene about a superpower whose media and population
find
: great satisfaction, and some sick form of national catharsis, every time
they
: manage to overcome a weak and desperate opponent.
:
: Some dreaded seagoing Somalis began taking up piracy in 1991, when the
Somali
: government disintegrated and there was no one to patrol the country’s
coasts.
: About the same time, and not coincidentally, commercial fishing fleets
from
: around the world took advantage of the lack of a Somali coast guard, to
steal
: every fish they could find in Somali waters. That’s “robbery on the high
seas,”
: the definition of piracy.
:
: An estimated $300 million worth of Somali sea life is pirated by
foreigners
: every year.
:
: Other kinds of pirates nowadays often leave something behind – the
piratical
: poisonous waste dumpers. They seem to be mafia-connected outfits that
dump the
: radioactive waste from European hospitals into Somali waters, along with
heavy
: metals and dangerous chemicals of all kinds. A survey by the Somali news
agency
: Wardheer News shows that 70 percent of Somalis “strongly supported
piracy as a
: form of national defense of the country's territorial waters."
:
: Having seen their coastal waters pirated by foreigners since 1991,
Somalis were
: then forced to endure the land and air piracy of the Ethiopians and the
United
: States, who collaborated in late 2006 to invade the country and oust the
only
: relatively effective government Somalia had had in 15 years. Occupied by
: Ethiopia with the backing of the American superpower, Somalis were
stripped of
: the last thing they had on land or sea – their national sovereignty. The
foreign
: super-pirates had taken everything.
:
: But the Somalis kept fighting back, anyway, driving out the Ethiopians
and
: making the Americans fume with rage. The Somalis refused to roll over
and die,
: or beg.
:
: Black U.S. Congressman Donald Payne’s airplane was targeted by mortars
when he
: visited Somalia’s ravaged capital, Mogadishu, over the weekend. Payne
opposed
: the U.S.-Ethiopia invasion of Somalia, but some of the Islamist fighters
: battling for control of the country may not make distinctions among the
: foreigners who pass through or over their land – and who can blame them?
:
: Barack Obama’s Ambassador to the United Nations, a young Black woman
named Susan
: Rice, is positively rabid when it comes to beating Somalia into
submission. She
: was more gung-ho for the U.S.-Ethiopian invasion than George Bush. Susan
Rice is
: no doubt searching for a military solution to "Somali piracy" – which
would
: amount to more piracy by the same foreigners that have driven Somalis to
such
: desperate measures.
:
: www.BlackAgendaReport.com.
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